Ooma w/ External Answering Machine

[dasman]

My wife wants to use our external answering machine, rather than Ooma Voicemail (external machine has an audible noftication, the Ooma Telo is not in an easily visible location).

I have set the number of rings for Ooma Voicemail to 9 (since it doesn't appear that you can disable Ooma Voicemail) and the external machine is set to pick up at 4 rings. However, at the fourth ring Ooma voicemail picks up, the mechanical voice gets halfway through the first sentence and then the external machine picks up and talks over it for a couple of seconds before the Ooma voicemail shuts down and we can hear the remainder of the external greeting and able to leave a message. Why is Ooma trying to pick up the line at all?

Second question, we are unable to remotely check the answering machine. For example, we need to dial 080 during the greeting to check messages on the external machine, but the greeting just marches on it's merry way -- as if it doesn't hear the tones. It's almost as if Ooma is not passing the keypress tones over the line.

The best solution would be for someone to tell me that the Ooma Telo has an audible notification that I can turn on, but I haven't found anything that leads me to believe it exists, so I'm stuck with needing the external machine...

I appreciate any help. Thanks,

dave

[murphy]

Ooma does not pass incoming tones. You will not be able to control the answering machine remotely.
If you have Premier you can turn on call screening and listen to an incoming message as it is received.

[lbmofo]

I have set the number of rings for Ooma Voicemail to 9 (since it doesn't appear that you can disable Ooma Voicemail) and the external machine is set to pick up at 4 rings. However, at the fourth ring Ooma voicemail picks up, the mechanical voice gets halfway through the first sentence and then the external machine picks up and talks over it for a couple of seconds before the Ooma voicemail shuts down and we can hear the remainder of the external greeting and able to leave a message. Why is Ooma trying to pick up the line at all?

This is weird. Not sure why ooma answering system would pick up. Maybe try 59 seconds (max) instead.

Second question, we are unable to remotely check the answering machine. For example, we need to dial 080 during the greeting to check messages on the external machine, but the greeting just marches on it's merry way -- as if it doesn't hear the tones. It's almost as if Ooma is not passing the keypress tones over the line.

Yes, well known issue as murphy stated.

The best solution would be for someone to tell me that the Ooma Telo has an audible notification that I can turn on, but I haven't found anything that leads me to believe it exists, so I'm stuck with needing the external machine...

Is visual indication good enough? A lot of newer phone systems have "voicemail indicator" on the handsets that works fine with the ooma answering system. When there is an ooma voicemail, this indicator on the handset turns on (LED light for some models).

[coldsteel]

I have the visual indicator on my Panasonic cordless phones and I haven't figured out a way to turn it off because both the OOMA indicator lights up AND the phone indicator lights up. Why is that a problem? well when you listen to the messages via the OOMA pad (hub or scout) the phone light will remain on. You still have to pickup the phone (engage dial-tone) to clear the light - its not a biggie its just a small annoyance I find with having an indicator on the phone itself if there is no way to disable that feature.

[lbmofo]

With my AT&T DECT 6.0 phone, the indicator goes away as soon as I hear the messages at the Hub.

[dasman]

Doesn't pass tones -- another disappointment...

Tried 59 seconds as well -- same issue.

Call screening doesn't do anything for me - the problem isn't when we're in the house, it's when we get home and don't realize there is a message (without remembering to go into an upstairs office and look).

Regarding voicemail indicator light -- our phone has one, but it doesn't seem to register that Ooma has voicemail (ie., the light never comes on). Also, I assume you can't use the answering machine handset to control listening to the voicemail (unless we get the Ooma handset -- which I've read poor reviews on).

The messages about Panasonic and AT&T Dect 6 phones -- do they actually control the Ooma Telo voicemail features, or are you only getting a light that tells you to go the the Telo to listen to the messages? Do third party Dect 6.0 handsets work with the Telo as the base unit, or are you just plugging the third party base into the Ooma?

Thanks,

dave

[feartheturtle]

Most dect6.0 phone's "message waiting light" work well when the dect6.0 base is plugged into the "phone port" of either the hub or the telo; not so well if the base is plugged into the phone port on a scout.

See the flashing light - pick up the dect6.0 phone and dial your own number - when finished listening to the messages hang up - within a few seconds the light stops flashing. Simple as that.

Exception: The scout for some reason will not output the correct signal to turn off the "message waiting light" after the messages have indeed been listened to. Can be annoying - you may end up powering down the dect6.0 base for a moment to clear the flashing light. So this only will be an issue if the dect6.0 base unit is plugged into the scout.

[coldsteel]

Nice tip feartheturtle , the cordless phones with the wonky message lights ARE plugged into my scout business line. I never tried those on the hub - the cordless units that I have on the hub (now) don't have any indicator lights. It's one for the to try list